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WordPress 2.3 Does Not Spy On Users [UPDATED]
Posted by
kdawson
on Tue Sep 25, 2007 11:37 AM
from the if-you-don't-like-it-fork-it dept.
from the if-you-don't-like-it-fork-it dept.
Marilyn Miller writes "Popular open-source blogging engine WordPress has been upgraded to 2.3 — with some unexpected nasties in the mix. As of version 2.3, WordPress now periodically (every 12 hours) sends personally identifying information (blog name & URI) to the mothership, along with an alarming amount of information including $_SERVER dumps, a list of installed plugins, and your current PHP/MySQL settings. Most unfortunately, it does not provide any way of disabling this functionality, and WordPress does not have any privacy policy protecting this information. In a thread about the issue, lead developer Matt Mullenweg defends his actions and staunchly refuses to add an opt-in interface, telling users to 'fork WordPress' if they aren't willing to put up with this behavior." Update: 09/25 17:52 GMT by KD : This article is misleading enough to be called "just wrong." Matt Mullenweg writes: "As mentioned in our release announcement, the update notification sends your blog URL, plugins, and version info when it checks api.wordpress.org for new and compatible updates. It does not include $_SERVER dumps, or any settings beyond version numbers (for checking compatibility), or your blog name, or your credit card number. We do provide a way of disabling this feature; in fact I link to one of the plugins in the release announcement and in my original response to Morty's thread."
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Submission: Devs admit: WordPress 2.3 Secretly Spying on Users by Anonymous Coward
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Surprised/ (Score:2)
Re:Surprised/ (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
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=Smidge=
Re:Surprised/ (Score:5, Informative)
disable WordPress version check [wordpress.org] and disable plugin version check [wordpress.org], both of which were mentioned by Matt in the thread above.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
What if someone has an issue with this information being transmitted? What if WP transmits the info before they are able to install the plug-in?
Guys, the issue here is not what info is being sent, it's that the information is being transmitted without asking for permission of the person running WP.
However, one of the best points brought up in the mailing list about what info is being sent is t
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
This is likely to occur in version 2.3.1. In fact, I'm advocating [wordpress.org] for just such a change, in true Open Source fashion.
The problem here is less one of malice and more one of poor timing. The WordPress project has been trying to stick to a rigorous, rigid schedule for releases (see: Fedora Project, Ubuntu, etc.) and this issue cropped up about 1.5 days before release. You can argue that the r
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Suggestion (Score:5, Funny)
Fork (Score:5, Insightful)
Alternatives, in that case? (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyway, i googled and found this link:
http://www.mitchelaneous.com/2007/09/19/9-wordpress-alternatives/ [mitchelaneous.com]
Now, my question is - how secure are they for you, sethawoolley? Which one would you choose?
Parent
This thread would be longer... (Score:5, Funny)
fork (Score:3, Interesting)
Consider it done.
I nominate the fork name to be: (Score:5, Funny)
well (Score:5, Interesting)
and wordpress isn't that complicated that this is something that no one but the most hard core will do. tons of wordpress users regularly go in and tweak it for their own uses. i haven't moved to this new versions with my site yet - i always wait a bit for things to shake out, and stuff like this is why. when i do upgrade, i'll just fix my install.
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Or take the even easier path and set up your firewall to block all packets from this application.
But neither of those options solve the underlying problem - the whole point of FLOSS is to prevent this from happening in the first place. If I have to take any extraordinary steps to secure myself against a free software application I'm using, if I have to go and turn an enemy into a friend through manual effort and each other user
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Why? Well anything else is supporting this developers decision, albeit indirectly.
He has every right to decide to do this, but users have every right to not use his code.
Let him be right and eat crow at the same time.
Ignorant bugger needs to learn a few hard lessons apparently.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
"> you fixed it for people running wordpress on a machine where they have root privileges. which i'm sure is a good number, but i'm not in that group. thanks anyway."
In that case: fgrep -n 1 "api.wordpress.org" *.php > lines_of_code_I_might_want_to_change.txt
Guys, the information is all really essential... (Score:5, Insightful)
The blog's URL
A list of all plugins and versions
A list of the $_SERVER env variables
How is this information not necessary for a robust autoupdating/autonotifying infrastructure? Since the plugns are the source of so many vulnerabilities, you need to know their versions etc.
Since so much incompatibility may be caused by funky $_SERVER variables, you need to know their contents.
And the blog URL tells you who it is.
Windows Update has to send far MORE intrusive information.
Re:Guys, the information is all really essential.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
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Re:Guys, the information is all really essential.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Guys, the information is all really essential.. (Score:3, Interesting)
It isn't what information they are looking at but how. If they want the information and it will make the software better, fine, but do they really have to go about it in such a sneaky and under-handed way? Even Microsoft allows you to control how your system is updated (I never let it run automatically; I prefer to know what it's trying to put on my system.). As to the "fork" comment, while I thin the generic blogging community will be clueless and have no idea what this is all about, this will drive the OS
Re:Guys, the information is all really essential.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Absolutely. However, you are assuming that I want my Wordpress installation to automatically update, and further that I am willing to give up a lot of sensitive information in order to get that done.
There should be a way to turn this feature off, plain and simple. There is no excuse whatsoever for forcing this down users throats. None. Yes, comment spam and other vulnerabilities are something that needs dealing with
Pyblosxom (Score:5, Interesting)
- its really light and fast
- I can edit posts in a text editor rather than a web based interface
- its in Python and very easy to customise
- theming far simpler, just rip your HTML template into a header and footer, rather than having to make 12 files with Wordpress.
Plug over... Move along...
That product is doomed (Score:4, Funny)
I mean, really, WTF. They might as well have named it slakdfjalskdjflaskjdf!
Parent
Breathless Hyperbole. (Score:5, Informative)
Matt Mullenweg is being very reasonable and reasoned in dealing with a small but vocal groups paranoia. In the same breath that he mentioned forking Wordpress, he also mentioned that another option is using a plugin that disables this behavior.
The submitter should be ashamed.
Re:Breathless Hyperbole. (Score:4, Insightful)
It should be easy to turn on and off.
It should default to off.
It can ask one time during the upgrade, or first login after the upgrade, to be turned on, with an explanation of what it does and why he thinks it can be turned on.
There is no good reason the above cannot or should not be accomodated.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It should default to off.
If windos auto-update would conform to those standards, we'd have a billion spam bots out there.
Instead of the half-a-billion we have now.
Re:Breathless Hyperbole. (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Isn't this the point of FOSS? (Score:4, Insightful)
OTOH, the idea of using FOSS (good!) as a venue for spyware (bad!) is enough to make a guy's head explode...
What Matt wrote (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What Matt wrote (Score:5, Insightful)
Thanks for your flamebait kdawson, really mature and appreciated.
WTF.
Parent
Rip out the code? (Score:2)
Fork we shall (Score:3, Informative)
The second way that the open source model has won, is that users who disagree with the direction the application is heading in can now fork. In fact, the head developer of the project suggests it. I'm pretty confident that this will happen and happen fast. Given that people "fork" (some say hack/crack) closed source software all the time to leave out all of the "evil" modules (See Kazaa > Kazaa Lite > Kazaa Lite K++; and don't forget cracked Windows XP) forking an open source project to leave out all of the "evil" modules should be pretty easy. I'm no developer, but I could see this being as simple as taking the original source, commenting out/removing the bad stuff, and then redistributing.
This is SENSATIONALISM (not Sparta) (Score:5, Insightful)
As to what the summary refers to, where Matt suggests a person fork Wordpress:
Again, he gives the solution to the original poster's complaint (Moritz 'Morty' Strube). If this Moritz is really concerned, he can fork and remove the new code that transmits this information - or if he isn't too concerned, just install the plugins matt suggested.
This is making something out of nothing. Definitely nothing to see here, please move along.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
LOL... I almost spit my coffee on the keyboard when I read this. I think some bloggers need to take off their tinfoil hat and step away from the keyboard... If you don't want anyone to find out your blog URL, then WTF are you doing blogging? Isn't the whole point for as many people as possible to find your blog URL?
Why is this even an issue? (Score:2)
You have the source code, right?
If you don't like the way the software behaves, you can change it. This is one of the fundamental freedoms the FSF endorses. In fact, I would say this is a perfect example of the open source model in action:
The sad thing is that Microsoft and other proprietary vendors have been so successful at convincing the general public that they should be a
Where did he say to just go fork?! (Score:5, Insightful)
So - did I miss something, or did everyone else not RTFA?
The Actual Quote (Score:2, Informative)
> If you don't trust wordpress.org, I suggest you do one of the following:
> 1. Use different software.
> 2. Fork WordPress.
> 3. Install one of the aforementioned plugins.
Don't worry (Score:4, Funny)
So... As a rule spying on users is always a security concern =P (name it WordPress or Windows Update).
Google Cloaking (Score:5, Informative)
Summary Is A Troll (Score:5, Informative)
Actually RTFA Matt's reasoning gives the opposite impression of the summary. Fork the submitter and Kdawson for greenlighting this.
--
BMO
I'm glad Matt updated us on this... (Score:3, Informative)
Up here, we (being the government) can't buy any software package that stores the data in the USA. I can only imagine the tens of millions of lost dollars in contracts because of the Patriot Act. I would of hate to have added Matt's awesome editor to that list. Rock on Matt!
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And everyone knows that this can done equally well by having the client request the current version number, and then the client can decide based on that whether an upgrade is needed. There is no reason for the server to need to know the version number to support an autoupdate feature.
and the $_SERVER and php/database settings are (I imagine) used to figure out what wordpress settings are common. How soon they can remove support for old versions of mysq
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Thank you Mr. Did-Not-Read-The-Fscking-Article.
I thought... (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
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I hope you actually read the article, and put some consideration into it, and aren't basing a business decision on a flamebait Slashdot summary.